This blog is all about Rotherhithe, past and present. The main themes are heritage, wildlife and news items that may be of interest to local residents. If you have any questions or would like to comment or ask me to cover any particular topic you can email me at andie [at] rotherhitheblog.co.uk. I am also on Twitter @AndieByrnes

Monday, April 21, 2014

A new book about Bermondsey in former days, by Debra Gosling who has produced other books about local history based on old photographs. May Days and Wash Days: The Spirit of Bermondsey is is in A4 format and 100 pages long. I couldn't figure out from the above whether it included Rotherhithe, but there will doubtless be Rotherhithe residents who don't mind either way. See the above page for more details.

Rotherhithe is one of many areas of London (and indeed Britain as a whole) that
suffered terribly in the Second World War, and the bomb damage is well
recorded, but there are fewer details about Rotherhithe's fate in the
First World War. The Rotherhithe entry on Wikipedia,
for example, has a paragraph about the Second World War, but makes no
mention at all of the Great War. Nor is it mentioned on Southwark
Council's Rotherhithe History page.
The Museum of London Docklands devotes almost no space to it. So why
not? It is not that London wasn't targeted between 1914
and 1918, because it was. In fact, aerial warfare was virtually
invented during this period, with airships and then early warplanes
being employed to drop bombs.

The answer seems to come into three parts. The first is that although
London had been identified as a legitimate target by Germany, the
technology was too basic to inflict anything like the damage in the
Second World War, and the weather created problems that the fragile
aircraft could not overcome. Second, the docks were not identified as a
key strategic target in the First World War, whereas in the Second, all
the docks were seen as key, and the damage inflicted was staggering,
overshadowing anything inflicted between 1914 and 1918. With particular
reference to Rotherhithe, the third reason that we never hear about
bomb damage locally from the First World War is that the few bombs that
did fall on Rotherhithe and in neighbouring created minor damage, caused
much less significant harm than other bombs that fell, by accident or
design, during the same raids in other residential and commercial areas.

This post, together with part 1, is more about the aerial attacks on
London than about Rotherhithe specifically, but wherever Rotherhithe was
hit I have given details. I wanted to provide something towards
commemorating the centenary of the First World War, and it proved to be
very difficult to find anything very useful about Rotherhithe's role, so
I apologize that this is a bit generic.

The Fighter Plane Blitz: Gothas and Riesenflugzeug.

The
final days of the airships from service overlapped with a new way of
attacking Britain from the air. Aeroplanes were now being employed,
with the specific aim of attacking London when possible, and other
strategic targets when it was not possible to reach London. Again,
civilian areas were considered to be fair game.

Whilst the airships bombed England, Britain and
Germany were both developing their own heavier-than air craft. The
aeroplane had only been invented in 1903, and in 1914 was still a very
basic piece of kit that to modern eyes looks impossibly small and
fragile. The two English air divisions, the RFC and the RNAS, having
rejected airships for military purposes (the Balloon Section of the
Royal Engineers was disbanded in 1911), were experimenting with a number
of different types of aeroplane, including the BE2c, the BE12, the
FE2b, the DH4, the SE5a, the Sopwith Pup, the Sopwith Camel, the Sopwith
1 1/2 Strutter, the Bristol Fighter (commonly referred to as a
Brisfit), and the Armstrong-Whitworth FK8. Germany, however, was
focusing her attentions on a much smaller range. Early German G-type
(Grosskampfflugzeug or large battle aeroplane, usually called Gotha)
bombers made by the Zeppelin company had already been used in warfare,
and were being used successfully on the mainland. But the early G-type
had a limited range, and was unable to fly directly from German-occupied
Belgium to England. By the end of 1916, the new G-type G.IV was ready
for use, and this did have the range to get to and return from England.
Accordingly the air service's new commander Ernst van Hoeppner formed a
special unit, Kagohl 3, which would be tasked with bombing London
during daylight hours. This was the Englandgeschwader (England
Squadron) plan.

By the beginning of 1917, Britain had
begun to relax its air defences, believing that the airship threat was
now largely over, and needing the equipment and the personnel at the
Western Front. In short, Britain had placed herself in a similar
situation of ill-preparedness as she had been at the start of the
airship raids. .

A Gotha G.IV. Sourced from Wikipedia.

The new Gotha G.IV biplanes were equipped with two
260hp engines and two machine guns and were capbable of flying at 80mph,
reaching heights of 18,000ft and could carry a bomb load of up to 400g.
They had the all-important range needed to both reach London and return
home. Each was manned by a commander, who was in charge of all the
decisions regarding the deployment of the plane and its bombs, a pilot
and a rear gunner. The Gothas were organized into groups of 6 units
known as "Kastas" (short for Kampfstaffeln). The plan was to attack
Britain during daylight hours, when she was least expecting it and when
visibility was high. The airships, raiding at night, had had the
benefit of low visibility (which was vital considering their vast size)
but rarely failed to hit specific military targets.

The
first Gotha daylight raid on England, a date dictated largely by the
weather, was originally destined for London on 24th May 1917, but was
met with heavy fog and contented itself with inflicting as much damage
as possible on the east coast, particularly Folkestone, leaving 95 dead
and 195 injured. From this point to the end of the war, Gotha raids
became common, and the considerably reduced home defence arrangements
were initially incapable of retaliating usefully.

Contemporary illustration, showing
Britain under fire

The first raid on London took place on 20th June,
when 18 Gothas bombed various locations, including the City. Although
162 died in the raid, with 426 injured and with material damage
estimated at £125,953, the Gothas came and went without serious
challenge from either air or ground defences, both of which were very
depleted. Decisions were delayed until a number of raids made it clear
that home defence had to become, once again, a priority. After the July
3rd raid, a committee was appointed to discuss improvements in home
defence, which once again meant diverting resources from the Western
Front. Over a period of time, recommendations for improvements were
implemented, leaving to new anti-aircraft measures being put into place,
assisted by more observation posts and a public warning system.

The
Gothas were by no means invulnerable. Quite apart from any damage that
English defences might have inflicted, they frequently experienced
engine problems, and many were damaged or destroyed on landing, as
without the ballast of bombs and fuel, landing them presented serious
difficulties. The weather, in particular high winds that blew them off
course, caused ongoing difficulties, and fog frequently prevented them
reaching their targets. Shortage of fuel could also be a problem. On
August 18th 1917 alone nine Gothas were lost after a failed attempt to
reach England due to a variety of circumstances, including Dutch
anti-aircraft fire, and on 22nd August of ten aircraft that reached the
English coast, three were shot down. The losses were considered
unacceptable, and daylight raids were abandoned in favour of night-time
offensives.

Actually from World War II, but
this illustration is a good
example of how balloon barrages
worked.

English home defence units were again taken by
surprise by the change in German tactics when the Gothas were sent in
under the cover of dark on the night of the 3rd of September.
Commercial, military and residential areas were hit, and the bombing was
deemed by the German air command to be a success. Gotha G.Vs were
added to the campaign, and the vast R-type Riesenflugzeug ("Giant")
aircraft became available to join the offensives against London. By the
time of the Harvest Moon Offensive (6 raids over 8 nights between 24th
September and 1st October 1917, a new anti-aircraft barrage tactic was
in operation, whereby the guns would be fired simultaneously to form a
curtain of shells through which the Gothas would not be able to pass,
and would have to divert around, making them easier prey for British
planes.

On the first night of the Harvest Moon raids on
24th September, the raids were heavy and the defences again failed to
make a dent in the damage inflicted. In addition, falling shrapnel from
the anti-aircraft guns firing in continuous unison, added to the damage
and injuries. The R-type Giant was deployed over England for the first
time on the 29th September, when its engines were so loud that those on
the ground thought that they must be clusters of Gothas rather than
single aircraft. Three bombers reached London, inflicting considerable
damage, and 276 anti-aircraft shells contributed to the chaos. The
clear skies over London, accompanied by moonlight, enabled the Gothas
and a small number of Giants to carry out devestating raids, piling ever
more pressure on the anti-aircraft guns, which were both reaching the
end of their operational lives and were overheating with over-work. By
the end of Harvest Moon, 151 bombs had left 50 dead and 229 injured.
The estimated cost of the damage was £117,773, and munitions production
at the Woolwich Arsenal had been slowed down significantly during the
raids.

In October two balloon screens were erected in
Essex. The balloons had wires suspended from them, forming physical
barrages that were intended to supplement the anti-aircraft gun
barrages. In addition, a new sound detection system was installed in
Dover, for early detection of incoming bombers. Improved air support
had been arranged too. Although raids continued towards December, they
were disappointing for Germany. English casualty figures were quite
low, but aircraft losses, due to a combination of circumstances, were
relatively high. Even so, the first raid of 1918, on January 28th,
resulted in the larges single loss of life from one bomb during the
entire London blitz. A 300g bomb was dropped on the Oldham Printing
Works in Covent Garden, an official air-raid shelter, killing 38 and
injuring 85.

For two months, between 8th March and 18th May,
German resources were required at the Western Front, and England was
spared the Gothas. To consolidate Britain's air strategy, the naval and
armed forces air divisions were replaced by the Royal Air Force, which
came into being on April 1st 1918. The Whitsun Raid of 19th May turned
out to be the final offensive against England before the Second World
War. Of the three Giants and twenty eight Gothas that reached England,
seven were destroyed. Plans were in place for future raids, using a
newly developed bomb, but it was widely accepted that the end of the war
was near, and the planned raids were cancelled.

Compared
with airships, more accurate bombing of identified targets mainly by
the Gothas had meant that there were fewer
accidental attacks on residential areas, but there were still a huge
amount of civilian losses. As with the airship raids, apart from
Woolwich, which had military value, southeast London was not a specific
target for raiders. However, a number of bombs were dropped over
Rotherhithe and nearby areas, and these are as follows.

On 4th/5th September 5 bombs were dropped in Greenwich to the east of Maze Hill, between Foyle and Colefraine Roads,
whilst another plane dropped two bombs on Millwall Docks, just across
the water from South Dock. On the first day of the Harvest Moon
offensive one of three Gothas that managed to reach London on 24th
September 1917 dropped explosive and incendiary bombs the East India
Dock Road, the West India Docks, Rotherhithe and Deptford before it
headed back east through Poplar. Of these, three explosive bombs hit
Rotherhithe just south of Evelyn Street just to the east of Plough Way,
and another hit right at the apex of Rotherhithe peninsula apparently
just west of the lock entrance into Lavander Pond, possibly in the
vicinity of where the St Paul's sports ground is now located. On the
night of October 31st, under a full moon, a Gotha came up from a bombing
raid in the Streatham and Tooting area, bombing Deptford, Surrey Docks,
Millwall Docks and Plaistow before heading out to the coast. This was
supposed to be part of a firestorm offensive, in which incendiaries
dropped all over London would create a blanket of fires. Fortunately,
the plan failed, and there were very few deaths that night. On 18th
December 1917, Bermondsey was the victim of an intensive explosive bomb
attack, most of which fell at Spa road, but one of which fell on the
Rotherhithe approach of Jamaica Road, near the river, almost opposite
the entrance to London Docks opposite.

The crashed Gotha G.V at Harrietsham.
It was brought down by a British bomber crew after dropping
bombs on Rotherhithe, the Old Kent Road and elsewhere.
Sourced from www.aeroconservancy.com/gothafabric.htm

Only one of the raids bit Rotherhithe in 1918, during
the final Whitsun raid of 19th May. It was one of several attacks by
18 aircraft observed by the Metropolitan Police and is recorded as
falling at 1155, when bombs were also falling on the Old Kent Road and
Kilburn. Sadly, I have been unable to find out whereabouts the
Rotherhithe bomb fell. The
bomber was a Gotha G.V piloted by Vizefeldwebel Albrecht Sachtler, and
it was attacked on its return journey across England by Major F. Sowery,
who had brought down a Zeppelin in 1916, now flying a
SE5a. He fired on the Gotha, apparently injuring Sachtler, but an engine
stall caused him to lose sight of the bomber as it departed. Sachtle
was unlucky that night, because he was spotted by Lieutenants Edward
Turner (pilot) and Henry Barwise (observer) in a Bristol Fighter. They
fired on him, and although engine trouble forced Turner to give up the
chase, the aircraft crasehd at 12,45am near Harrietsham, killing its
pilot and commander. Only the rear gunner survived. Lieutenant Turner
was given the machine guns from the plane as a trophy, and Lieutenant
Barwise was given the propeller. Both men were awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross. A black cross retrieved from the plane was
pinned up in the Biggin Hill squadron mess thereafter. On the same
night one explosive bomb also fell immediately opposite Lavender Pond on
the north side of the Thames.

The
final tally of the Gotha and Giant attacks on England were 837 dead
(486 in London) and 1991 injured (1432 in London). 16 aircraft were also
lost. As with the airship attacks, although British morale remained
undented, resources had be be withdrawn from the Western Front to tackle
the raids. In addition, munitions production was disrupted.

In the Second World War London's docklands were seen
as a strategic target and were bombed relentlessly. The Second World
War bombs that hit the Downtown area, setting fire to timber yards,
homes and Trinity Church, caused some of the worst fire damage in
London. But in the First World War, the docks were not a target for
either airships or aeroplanes, and the damage inflicted on Rotherhithe
was rather more incidental rather than intentional. Of the small number
of bombs that fell in and around Rotherhithe, I have been unable to find
any first hand or newspaper accounts, which is a shame.

The
positive outcomes of both the airship and aeroplane raids were that
the RAF was formed to manage air strategy in the future, a central
communications hub was created in the September of 1918, the value of
barrage balloons had been demonstrated, and were invaluable in World War
II, and a
considerable amount had been learned about both ground to air and air to
air combat. In the three years between the first airship raids in 1915
and the last airship and aeroplane raids in 1918, Britain went from
being a country that had never seen an air rad before to one that had
hard-earned expertise in how to deal with them.

As
the above account describes, London suffered during the First World
War, but this is often forgotten, overshadowed by the greater
devastation of the Second World War.

Further Reading

Parts 1 and 2 of this
post were hugely dependent on two books written by Ian Castle (although
any errors are, of course, my own). For anyone interested in finding
out more about the air raids on London, you need look no further:

Books dealing more generally with the defence of Britain during the First World War are:
Cole, C. and Cheesman, E.F. 1984, The Air Defence of Great Britain 1914–1918. Putnam.
Charlton, L., 1938. The Air Defence of Britain. Penguin Books.
Fredette, R.H. 1976, The Sky on Fire: The First Battle of Britain 1917–1918. Harvest.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Rotherhithe is one of many areas of London (and indeed Britain as a whole) that
suffered terribly in the Second World War, and the bomb damage is well
recorded, but there are fewer details about Rotherhithe's fate in the
First World War. The Rotherhithe entry on Wikipedia,
for example, has a paragraph about the Second World War, but makes no
mention at all of the Great War. Nor is it mentioned on Southwark
Council's Rotherhithe History page. The Museum of London Docklands devotes almost no space to it. So why not? It is not that London wasn't targeted between 1914
and 1918, because it was. In fact, aerial warfare was virtually
invented during this period, with airships and then early warplanes
being employed to drop bombs.

The answer seems to come into three parts. The first is that although London had been identified as a legitimate target by Germany, the technology was too basic to inflict anything like the damage in the Second World War, and the weather created problems that the fragile aircraft could not overcome. Second, the docks were not identified as a key strategic target in the First World War, whereas in the Second, all the docks were seen as key, and the damage inflicted was staggering, overshadowing anything inflicted between 1914 and 1918. With particular reference to Rotherhithe, the third reason that we never hear about bomb damage locally from the First World War is that the few bombs that did fall on Rotherhithe and in neighbouring created minor damage, caused much less significant harm than other bombs that fell, by accident or design, during the same raids in other residential and commercial areas.

This post, together with part 2, are more about the aerial attacks on London than about Rotherhithe specifically, but wherever Rotherhithe was hit I have given details. I wanted to provide something towards commemorating the centenary of the First World War, and it proved to be very difficult to find anything very useful about Rotherhithe's role, so I apologize that this is a bit generic.

The airship raids on London began in 1915. They were not the precursor to an invasion force, but were intended instead to undermine British efficiency and popular morale. To achieve both aims, targets were both military and civilian. Whilst prime targets included military targets (military bases and barracks, fuel and ammunition stores and airfields and the Royal Arsenal and docks at Woolwich and the docks at Tilbury and Chatham) and commercial areas (the City of London's financial institutions), the German airship and fighter plane commanders also had permission to attack residential areas, with the intention of demoralizing civilians in order to raise hostility to Britain's involvement in the war. By destruction and demoralization, the aim was to persuade Britain to pull out of the war, and the same German strategists, who had been convinced that Britain would not enter the fray in the first place, were convinced that this would not take long. British newspapers, outraged as civilians of all ages began to die, dubbed the Germans "baby killers."

The aluminum-framed airship (or dirigible) had been developed mainly for pleasure use in early 20th century Germany, by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's Zeppelin company in 1900, but the military potential of such vessels was soon evident and the German army was already investing so much in the development of an airship branch that by 1908 alarms began to ring in the British government. Although their use for reconnaissance was considered to be a primary function, the use of hot air balloons in the American Civil War and during the 1870 Siege of Paris for bomb drops certainly indicated that air attacks were a possibility. A second company, Schutte-Lanz, also began manufacturing airships in 1911 in competition with Zeppelin, with plywood frames, and this too began to supply the armed forces with its new weapons. The German armed forces soon had two airship divisions, one operated by the army, the other by the navy.

The British had reason to fear an air attack, because Germany had already used her airships to bomb Liege in Belgium at the beginning of World War 1 on 6th August 1914. Britain's own experiments with airships, resulted in the decision to invest in aeroplanes instead, with the army and the navy striking out in slightly different directions with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Navy Air Service respectively.

First World War poster

German plans to bomb England at the start of the war, led by the Deputy Chief of
the German Naval Staff, Konteradmiral Paul Behncke, were initially
hampered by Kaiser Wilhelm II who, although the main architect of the
war, was reluctant to attack the heart of Britain due to his connections
with the British royalty. Under pressure from his advisers, however,
the Kaiser caved in to their demands in stages. In January 1915 he agreed that military
and commercial targets outside London could be attacked. A month later
he agreed that London could be included in the raids, but insisted on
the exclusion of royal palaces, national monuments and residential
zones. By July he had been convinced that the entire of London presented a legitimate target.

The earliest airships to be used over England were Zeppelin's "M" Class, with three engines. Quiet and able to reach 8000ft these first
airships were supplied with bombs, including incendiary and explosive bombs
and grenades. However, they were unable to penetrate any further than the east coast, where they inflicted substantial damage. Newer, longer airships with more engines, the "P" class introduced later in 1915, was able to climb to 10,000ft and use her four engines to move faster, enabling them to evade Britain's initially rather lackluster anti aircraft measures, including searchlights, anti-aircraft guns and a squadron of small biplanes based along the coast. With the P class, Germany was able to reach London and inflict considerable damage. On her first raid, the new P-Class LZ38 passed into and out of London unchallenged, and caused over £18,000 of damage, killing seven civilians.

The Q-Class made small improvements in size on the P-class, and was introduced early in 1916. Next, the 1916 R classes were built, known in Britain as "Super Zeppelins," which were longer and more powerful . Finally, S-Class Zeppelins were introduced in 1917, airships that could cruise so high that her crews suffered from altitude sickness and frostbite and were known by the British as "Height Climbers".

LZ.32, the Zeppelin in which Zeppelin hero Commander Heinrich Mathy
perished during his assault on London in 1916, shot
down by Wulstan Tempest in his BE2c biplane
Sourced from www.pugetairship.org/zeppelins/list_2.html

Defense against the airships was a problem, particularly as they grew in size (improving their ability to climb to ever higher altitudes) and were equipped with more engines for greater speeds.. Although small squadrons of aeroplanes were stationed along the east coast, these had difficulty locating the airships, took a considerable amount of time to reach a height where they could engage them directly, and had ammunition that proved to be ineffective when they were able to engage. On the ground, search lights were intermittently successful in picking out the intruders, and ground-to-air guns often lacked the range to reach the high-flying airships. Blackouts in London had been introduced as early as October 1914, months before the raids began.

Improvements in all areas were made during the war, and although Britain
was largely defenceless against airships in 1914, she was in a very
strong position by the end of 1917. The days of the airship for raiding England were numbered, as the anti-aircraft defenses improved and research into improved firepower and techniques for directing it at the airships equipped tiny British biplanes with the means to take a line beneath the vast hulls off the airships, evading their heavy machine-gun fire, to introduce a mixture of different devices into the outer covering of the ship, allowing oxygen to pass into the vast hydrogen-holding bags where incendiary devices exploded. The combination of the oxygen, hydrogen and the sparking of the incendiary device was lethal, and began to bring down airships in such numbers that the decision was eventually taken to withdraw the airship from service.

Bombing raids over London mainly hit civilian targets. This was partly by intention, but sometimes by accident. A number of German log books indicate that their commanders thought that they had hit strategic targets, but were clearly either off course or had mis-read the geography below. In addition, in order to increase speed and height, as airships left the target area, they dropped their remaining bombs over whatever land they were passing over to lighten the load. This resulted in various areas being bombed more or less at random. If civilian morale could be undermined, no bomb was a wasted bomb, and these random bomb drops were considered to valuable to Germany's ambitions. Included in these raids were the non-strategic areas of Bermondsey, Deptford and Rotherhithe.

South London avoided bomb damage until the third raid, which took place on the night of the 7th/8th September 1915. Having dropped bombs on the Isle of Dogs, airship SL2 passed over the Thames and dropped bombs on Deptford and Greenwich, whilst LZ74 dropped explosive bombs in Bermondsey (Keetons Road, half a mile from the Surrey Commercial Docks), south Rotherhithe (Ilderton Road) and New Cross. The Ilderton Road bombs fell on a house, killing six and injuring five. The raid of March 31st/1st April 1916 was not a success, but to ensure the Kaiser's ongoing support, the head of the airship division, Peter Strasser claimed that a number of explosions had been caused by his airships in London, including one at Surrey Commercial Docks, which simply never happened. In the sixth London raid on the night of August 24th/25th, southeast London was again bombed following heavy bombing of the Isle of Dogs, with Deptford and Greenwich again targeted, and Blackheath as well.

British propaganda postcard:
The End of the "Baby Killer"

Due to poor accuracy in bomb drops and navigational difficulties, German plans for the destruction of strategic targets never reached a point where the British would have to contemplate withdrawing from the war. German hopes for undermining morale backfired, with the airship raids causing passionate anger against Germany, and calls for revenge bombings. The defeat of the airships gave Britain a powerful PR weapon, and postcards were issued showing airships (generically referred to as "Zepps," irrespective of the manufacturer) going down in flames.

The cost to London was considerable, but the airship raids failed to succeed in their primary goal of forcing Britain to withdraw from the war. The airship attacks did, however, divert much-needed equipment and human resources from the Western Front, and they did result in considerable loss of life, many injuries and a considerable financial cost from the damage to buildings and other infrastructure, so they can by no means be written off as a failure.

In total, the airships and their bombs killed 557 people (181 in London), injured a further 1358 (504 in London) and caused £1.5million of damage (£1million of it in London alone).

Thursday, April 3, 2014

HMS Hind and HMS Jackdaw were built by John Jenkins Thompson of Horseferry yard, Rotherhithe, who has already been mentioned as the builder ofthe paddle steamersAriel and Banshee for other clients. They were commissioned in 1854 by the Royal Navy as gunboats for service in the Baltic during the Crimean War, and were launched in 1855.

John Jenkins Thompson was born in the Bermondsey area in around 1794. He
specialized mainly in the
construction of yachts, small prestige vessels and lifeboats. His Horseferry yard, near the Horseferry stairs, was established from around 1830, and by 1843 consisted of three large
workshops, sheds, a slipway, sundry other buildings
and a home and garden. The dry dock was built diagonally across the yard. As Rotherhithe Street ran parallel to the Thames, the space for establishing docks was confined to the strip between the road and the river. The construction of a dock that ran diagonally across the shipyard gave the builder the ability to build much longer ships than neighbouring Globe and Lavender yards. From the above map it also looks as though Jenkins built out into the Thames to further extend his operations. Sadly, there are no traces of it now, but it was located where Sovereign Crescent (the modern Barratt development) now stands.

As traditional ship building yards closed all around him, Thompson seems to
have seen the opportunities offered by steam and moved
into larger projects. His successes with the construction of paddle steamers resulted in the two contracts for screw steamers. Screw propelled ships were an innovation that changed the face of ship building forever, and Thompson was an early builder to be entrusted with the construction of the new technology.

Both were of the Dapper class gunboats designed by W.H. Walker, who also designed the Gleaner and Albacore classes, two of around twenty Dapper class gunboats built for the Crimea. They were 106ft long with a 22ft beam, weighing 232 tons, with a total carrying capacity of a crew of 36 men. They were shallow drafted, for use in the shallow waters of the Baltic. Both were fitted with four guns, a 69 pounder, a 32 pounder, and two 24 pounder howitzers. Both were of single screw propulsion design, and were fitted with two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion direct-acting steam engines built by Maudslay, Sons and Field, with three boilers. They could also run on sail when required.

The Baltic Fleet leaving Spithead

Hind was ordered on the 18th October 1854 and launched on the 3rd May 1855. The specification for the ship indicate that her keel should be built of oak or elm, with oak planking for sides and fir for decks. The fifteenth ship to hold the name Hind, she won the Battle Honour for her role in the Baltic and took part in the Royal Ship Review of 1856 to celebrate the end of the Crimea War. She was broken up in October 1872 at Devonport.

Jackdaw was also ordered on the 18th October 1854 but was launched two weeks later than Hind on the 18th May 1855. Her hull was specified to be either oak or elm. She was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Joshua Berkeley in the Baltic (as tender
to Duke of Wellington) from the 10th September 1855 and then, from the 8th February 1856 she was commanded by
Lieutenant commander William Swinburn. Jackdaw was hulked as a cooking depot in 1868 and sold to C. Wort, presumably for breaking up, in November 1888

Sadly, after hundreds of years of naval commissions, Jackdaw was
the last Royal Navy ship to be built on Rotherhithe. Only 15 years
later, in 1870, Lothair was the last big ship to be built on Rotherhithe, constructed for the tea trade.
Between them they mark the end of Rotherhithe's ship building industry.

It is great to see the Thames Tunnel shaft being put to good cultural use again. This time it's the Pop-up Opera’s Le Docteur Miracle, which will be performed on 26th and 27th April at 7.30pm. Pop-up are touring the country with this retelling of Bizet’s comic operetta. Aged eighteen, Bizet won a competition organised by Offenbach to write an operetta. It was to be based on a libretto which was a French adaptation of Sheridan’s St Patrick’s Day. The result was Le Doctor Miracle. This charming, lively, fizzing piece contains echoes of Rossini and gives us a foretaste of Bizet’s most famous opera Carmen, extracts of which will be served up as a delicious musical dessert, perfectly complimenting the French bistro feel.

Sorry that this story is over two weeks old, but for anyone who hasn't seen this or a related article, I thought that it might be of interest. Sam Jones in The Guardian on Thursday 13th March reported that almost 250 tall towers are "proposed, approved or already under construction" for London. The New London Architecture thinktank has released a report saying that 236 of the new buildings will be more than 20 storeys high, with 33 of them between 40 and 49 storeys and 22 of them with 50 or more. 19 % are already under construction and 48% of them have already been approved. 77% will be in east and central London with Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Greenwich, Newham and Southwark being allocated 140 of the 236 towers.

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A History of South Dock

I have assembled all my posts concerning the history and heritage of South Dock into a website of its own, which seemed to be a requirement following the announcement of the St George's Wharf development that will overshadow the South Dock area. It can be found at:http://southdockse16.wordpress.com

Aberdovey Londoner

In July 2018 I moved to Aberdovey on the mid Welsh coast, and began a blog there. It is a very different place and experiences are all completely novel. If you are interested, you can find it at https://aberdoveylondoner.wordpress.com

Port of London Study Group

If you are interested in the archaeology and history of the Port of London you may be interested in the Port of London Study Group, a self-guided research group that operates out of the Museum of London. Find out more at http://portoflondonstudy.wordpress.com.

British Transport Treasures

This blog is run with considerable assistance from excellent local history publications written by Stuart Rankin. His works are my starting point for all history posts. Stuart has set up a website, called British Transport Treasures, that specializes in out of print publications which can be downloaded as PDFs that can be saved and printed. Out of print publications are a nightmare for anyone attempting local history research unless they have access to a specialist library and archives. British Transport Treasures is expanding fast with an ever-growing catalogue of titles. Each of the publications is described with a magazine-style short review to explain the scope of the content, and provided with a preview of the cover and first page. There is a nominal cost for each, to cover the costs of hosting and running the site, and 5p per item sold is donated to Help For Heroes. I am a massive fan of the site and what it is attempting to do, and as it has a number of publications concerning Rotherhithe I have drawn attention to some of them here.